Mixtape Memories with DJ SNS

Back in the pre-Internet hip-hop era, before you could stream and download all the latest new songs online the moment they drop, there was DJ SNS. In the history of New York City mixtape culture, SNS (formerly known as DJ S&S) was a crown-holder in the early to mid-’90s, thanks to his ability to get exclusive records no one had heard before—many times before they were ever even played on the radio—and compile them to make the hottest tapes for rap fans to bump in their car, walkman, and/or boombox. Whether it was the newest Biggie, Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, or even Snoop Dogg song, SNS had that shit, early. Dumb early. And he always made the songs sound iller than they already were, thanks to his energetic brand of DJ speak.

For our latest Mixtape Memories interview, we got on the horn with Harlem’s own DJ SNS (who now lives in North Carolina) to talk about the early Brucie B and Kid Capri mixtapes that inspired him, how he got jumped after leaking his first monster exclusive, the time he gave Snoop Dogg a tape with his first single “What’s My Name?” on it six months before it was officially released, and how he stole a very sought-after Nas record from famed A&R Faith Newman’s office. Plus much more, like working with Puff Daddy and Biggie on Bad Boy Mixtape Vol. 4 during the height of their conflict with Death Row, his thoughts on DJ Clue’s mixtape success, and the story of a past beef with Ma$e that almost got ugly. Bassline, come on!!

Early Mixtape Days in Harlem/Brucie B and Kid Capri

“Back in like ‘87, ‘88, when I was real young, you had Rooftop mixtapes [made by] Brucie B [or] DJ Starchild. To get your hands on one of those, you had to be in that in-crowd. That’s when Alpo and AZ and hustling was big in Harlem. I had one of the biggest hustlers on my block— Nappy Redd, God bless the dead—so I was always in that crowd.

“There [were] no tape spots [yet]. None of that. Bruce was the master of this. He would make a mixtape, and shout out all the hustlers on that mixtape. All the main, big hustlers in the street. And that tape was only available at Rooftop on Friday and Saturday night. And that shit was $40. [And you’d buy it from] the DJ booth.

“All the hustlers that had cars [were] playing them. I wasn’t really getting no paper like that back then. I was DJing, but I was just doing the park jams. So my man was like, ‘Let’s put our money together and get this Brucie B tape.’ So I got the Rooftop joint, and then every week we would go, and we [were] too young to get in, but we would take our little paper, whatever we could get, and give it to the bouncers so we could get in the club. We’d scrape together at least $100, so we made sure we had $50 for the bouncer, $40 for that mixtape, and $10 to get something to eat.

“Rooftop was a skating rink, so that was the hype place to be. So he’d be playing old school R&B and the rap that was big [at the time]. Kid ‘n’ Play, [Marley Marl and Craig G’s] ‘Droppin’ Science,’‘Heart Breaking Decision’ by Meli’sa Morgan. And that was the first time I heard Guy’s ‘Goodbye Love,’ on a Brucie B mixtape.

“That shit taught me about old school R&B. My uncles [were] playing it, but they weren’t playing that type of R&B. That was newer at the time. My uncles played ‘70s joints. I learned about ‘Computer Love,’ Anita Baker. That’s what that mixtape consisted of during that time period. It was whatever he was playing that night.

“You had Bruce, Starchild, Hollywood. It was all that Rooftop click, [made up of all the DJs that would spin at the Rooftop]. It all came from Bruce, but they [would] be in the booth [certain nights] while Bruce was taping. It was like him recording a house party [and then selling it on a tape for the hustlers to play in their cars].

“They had a big shooting, and the Rooftop closed down. But before that, when the Rooftop was still bumpin’, me and my man [were] walking, and Kid Capri pulled up in a OJ cab, and said, ‘Yo, come to my party at The Castle.’ But me and my man, we were Brucie B heads, so we were like, ‘Kid Capri? Get outta here, man!’ But, that one night that he had his party, it was crazy. Rooftop was empty the next week. But we still didn’t know who Kid Capri was, until we saw him on 145th, sitting next to Willie’s, selling his mixtapes for $20. He was selling The Castle mixtapes, and his regular mixtapes. So we used to buy those, too.

“Bruce and Kid Capri inspired me. I wanted to be like them. I was already a DJ, but they made me take it seriously. It wasn’t even about the money. It was the new sound of the music. The way Bruce and Kid Capri made the music sound, it was like they amplified it up. Back then, slow jams only existed for you being with your girl. They made slow jams sound like the joints that you sit on the bench and everybody go, ‘Ohhh!!!’ By talking over them [and giving shoutouts], they made them shits sound beautiful.”

First Mixtape/The Birth of Exclusives

“The first mixtape spot [in Harlem] was J&J. It was a candy store, on 124th Street and 3rd Avenue. Rock ‘n’ Will’s [was the stand inside the store that sold tapes], and they were only selling Kid Capri mixtapes at first. I think in 1991, I started making tapes for my team on my block. [My first one was called] 218. Nobody was making names [for their tapes], it was all numbers. I was still working a regular job, doing my little tapes. Then the first tape I came out with in the store was Old School #1. It sounded just like Kid Capri’s Old School #1. [Laughs.] My first song was ‘Let’s Get it On’ by Marvin Gaye, that’s how I started it off.

“People started listening to me. I had a real hype voice, so that’s what separated me. As Kid Capri’s fame blew up, he became the icon he is. And Bruce was incarcerated, so it was Capri at that time [who was the star]. Then you had Triple C, Ron [G] and them. I went to school with Ron. So I’m watching all these guys, and I’m trying to be different than everybody else.

“When I started making an impact in the game is when Kid and Doo Wop started battling. I had my little name in the street too. It was Kid, Wop, Ron, Action Pac, E. Bros, there [were] a whole bunch of us that [were] out. I used to be in the Bronx a lot with Buckwild and Ez Elpee. I was really involved with the Diggin’ In The Crates movement. I used to be up in the Bronx with Showbiz and A.G., and Party Arty—God bless the dead. Buckwild and Ez Elpee used to tell me, ‘You gotta start playing exclusives, stuff that no one’s ever heard. You can’t play the same records everybody else got.’ I was like, ‘Really.’ They [were] doing it on their mixtapes, but they [weren’t] as big as we were. So when I started [playing exclusives], I took that shit to another level, because no one was really doing it.

“Kid used to do it, but Kid was Kid. When he stopped doing mixtapes, he left that lane wide open. So when I started doing it, it was kinda easy. I was always at the labels, I had relationships with a lot of people [in the streets], so niggas threw me records. Then shit just started going.”

Recording

“I used to go to Craig G’s house [who I was partners with] to make [sure my tapes were] clear. What I did is put two tape decks in front of me. Then, if I had vinyl of the record, I’d play the vinyl. But if the song I wanted to play was on tape, and a lot of them joints were, I was a master of the pause button. Hold the pause button, and drop it in at the right time [right after I said what I had to say on the mic]. All of that was straight through. There was no 4-track or nothin’. As one song was playing, I’m queuing the next joint up. If I fucked up, I had to start all over again.

“I remember I did a mixtape, I forgot the name of it, but I was about to put it out, end of ‘93. Puff Daddy rolls up on me with the [Mercedes] 325 drop top, rims and everything. He goes, ‘Yo, you made your mixtape yet?’ I was like, ‘Nah, I’m about to put it in the store right now.’ He’s like, ‘I got this new Craig Mack, you gotta put it on your mixtape!’ He played it in the car and said, ‘You got at least a week or two before I put this on the radio.’ I went back home, and did that whole shit over. [Laughs.] ‘Flava In Ya Ear.’ I had it before anyone even knew what it was. That shit hit the street, and was hot before Hot 97 had it.”

Talking on Tapes

“I used to study Kid Capri and Bruce. The rule of talking was, ‘Never talk during the verse.’ The reason people said that they hated when DJs talked is because niggas used to talk during the verse. Like, you’re riding in the car vibing, and a motherfucker starts shouting out niggas during a verse? So I just made sure I stayed with the hook, and during the verse, I’ll do like a ‘Yeah!’ or ‘Come on!’ to enhance your enjoyment. I’m hyping you [without messing up your ability to hear the artist’s verse]. Then I’ll bring it back, like, ‘Oh, this record right here is crazy!! DJ S&S!! Come on!!’ I’m treating it like it’s a party, at all times. That’s how I always wanted it to be. That’s one thing I learned from Kid and Bruce. ‘Always treat everything you do like it’s one big party.’ I want you to be groovin’ like you’re right there in front of me, and you’re watching me.”

Making Money

“I sold masters. I ain’t have no time to be doing that [mass] duplicating shit. I sold masters to Uptown Flava, Sammy’s in the Bronx, Stereo Palace on 125th Street across the street from The Apollo. I’d get like $150, $200 for a master. And I’d make some [copies] myself and be in the streets too, selling them for $5. I stopped working in ‘91 [and ate off the mixtape and DJ game after that].”

First Big Exclusive

“I had ‘Hip Hop Hooray’ a year before it came out. A nigga hit me off with a tape one day. I was chillin’ at an industry party, and he was like, ‘Yo SNS, I got these Naughty [by Nature] songs. You want ‘em?’ I was like, ‘Oh shit, hell yeah!’ So I played ‘Hip Hop Hooray’ [on my tape]. I forgot the number, it was in ‘92. That mixtape went everywhere. I was killin’ ‘em.

“I had a beef with Treach [after the song came out on my tape]. I got jumped at The Rink in Jersey. It was a learning experience. But I didn’t understand the game back then. We squashed it the next day after, it almost got real crazy between us. But about eight years ago, we talked about it. I was living in Jersey, and we went to lunch one day. He was like, ‘You gotta understand my nigga. What if somebody else would’ve done that record, taken that [‘Hip Hop Hooray’] idea before [our record officially] came out?’ And I understood, like, ‘Wow, you’re right.’

“I kept going though. He was right about what he said, but at the time, I was young, and [I didn’t understand yet]. What happened with the jumping is it enhanced me! Tommy Boy tried to take me off the shelves. But it was too late. They couldn’t do a thing, because it wasn’t in the stores. It wasn’t legitimized. It was in tape spots, but by law, they couldn’t do anything. You have a tape with one song on there with a whole bunch of other songs. There’s no cover, there’s no names [of tracks], it’s just a tape. You gotta sit there and find the song. That was the beauty of mixtapes back then. The people loved me and Ron and all the people from the mixtape era because of how we made the music sound. It was like, ‘You got an S&S tape? I ain’t gotta hear it. You got a Doo Wop tape? I ain’t gotta hear it. Give me that mixtape. I trust them.’ It’s like an artist [that you trust]. Jay Z’s always gonna give you quality work.”

Death Row Exclusives

“The first song [on my tape] had to be a song that no one was gonna have. And that’s why I killed them that summer with the Something For That Ass [series]. ‘Deep Cover’ had just dropped, and everybody was going crazy over Snoop Dogg. And I had ‘What’s My Name?’ two weeks after it came out, and no one had it. It wasn’t clear at all. But the fucking streets did not care. [Laughs.]

“That summer, I was at a club in Harlem called Club 2000. And Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg came to the club. I’m DJing, and I had enough balls to give Snoop the mixtape. That’s when the lists started, when they started putting [the names of the songs on the tape covers]. The nigga Snoop looked at the mixtape and saw, ‘Snoop Dogg ‘What’s My Name?’’ He tapped Dr. Dre and said, ‘He got ‘What’s My Name?’’ [Laughs.] Dre and them looked at me and said, ‘Who are you?!’ [Laughs.]

“Real talk, I’ll never forget this shit. The nigga [Snoop] looked at me and said, ‘Yo cuz. How’d you get this, cuz?’ I said, ‘I’m in these streets.’ The nigga Snoop and Dre said, ‘Thank you. We appreciate you.’ They didn’t care the record leaked. It was the fact that a nigga from New York had a record that they were about to come out with in six months. This guy’s first single. They shook my hand, bought me a drink, came in the booth for a minute, and broke out. There was no Instagram so I couldn’t get any pictures or any shit like that, but it was a crazy moment. I can’t front on that.”

“Then, me and Craig G, we [were] in the chicken spot. And this dude was like, ‘Yo, you’re S&S, right? I got these Death Row records. What’s up? I need some paper. Give me $35 and I’ll give you these shits.’ I said, ‘How I know something’s on the tape?’ He was like, ‘I got my radio right here.’ He put the tape on, and it was K-Solo and Kurupt over ‘Gin & Juice.’ The tape had six songs. It was the K-Solo and Kurupt [freestyle], ‘Gin & Juice,’ ‘Niggaz Don’t Give a Fuck,’ [and a few others]. I don’t know [who the guy was who gave me the tape]. [Laughs.]

“My hand-to-hand combat was so great in the streets, so niggas fucked with me. I used to be in the projects in Harlem, the Bronx. I’d go to Queens, I used to be in Yonkers, in White Plains. I used to be everywhere. I’d be dolo, or me and my man. And I played ball in a lot of places. And you know, when you play ball with a lot of cats, you form relationships. And I was killing parties. That really helped with the mixtapes a lot, too. And I would play everything. I had no bias. Radio wasn’t allowed to play records like [‘Niggaz Don’t Give a Fuck’]. I had the clubs, and I had the streets.”

Something For That Ass III/Biggie and Nas Exclusives

“B.I.G. gave me ‘Fuck the World’ [aka ‘The What’ with Method Man]. And I already had ‘Come On’ [with Sadat X]. That was the classic mixtape, Something For That Ass III. What happened was he was supposed to come to the crib and do a freestyle for that tape. He called me at like 8:35 in the morning, like, ‘Yo son, I’m sorry. A nigga was drinking last night, a nigga’s sick. You got the ‘Fuck the World’ joint. Whatever other joints you got by me, just play it, dogs. If Puff say somethin’, fuck it. I’ll tell him I gave it to you.’

“I saw B.I.G. at this event [after the tape came out]. Nigga said, ‘Yo, son! You got me out here looking like a fucking king! Niggas in Brooklyn, all I’m hearing all day is, ‘Come on motherfuckers, come on!’’ He was hyped!

“Something For That Ass III was also when I played all the Nas shit [from Illmatic]. I got in trouble. Nas and them wanted to kill me, oh my God. [Laughs.] I played five songs off the album [and the ‘It Ain’t Hard to Tell (Remix)’]. I didn’t know they were only gonna put ten songs on the album! [Laughs.] I thought it was gonna be like everybody else’s album, like sixteen songs! I played what I thought was hot, and I had them shits before niggas even knew what ‘The World is Yours’ was. ‘Represent.’ All that.

“Nas wanted to kill me, and Sony wanted to kill me. But, me and [Nas’ brother] Jungle [were] cool, so he helped smooth it out. But real talk, Tyriess Harris at Columbia sat me down and told me Nas and The Fugees [were] about to get dropped after their first album. Nas didn’t sell that much, remember? Not because of my mixtape, but a lot of people wanted to blame me.”

“I heard the ‘Understanding’ record. Every DJ from Queens used to play it, but it was so cloudy that it wasn’t understandable. I was like, ‘I love this Nas record, but how am I gonna get the record?’ So I asked Jungle, them niggas ain’t have it. They said, ‘We don’t have a clear version of that. Only the labels have it.’

“So I happened to be in Faith Newman’s office, [who was the A&R responsible for signing Nas]. And I asked her for it. She told me no, because of the prior Nas situation. So she happened to leave the office, and she had all these DATs on the wall right by where I was sitting. So I looked, and I saw a DAT that said ‘Understanding.’ I was like, ‘Oh really??!!?’ I had a DAT in my pocket, because someone had given me one prior [to me seeing Faith Newman]. Same exact Sony DAT. So I took the label off ‘Understanding,’ put it on the DAT I had, and put it in that place, and took the [one with ‘Understanding’ on it]. And I played it on the mixtape with me and Craig G, [Niggas Don’t Give a Fuck]. Every DJ was like, ‘How did you have ‘Understanding’ so clear?

“I put ‘Ain’t No Nigga’ as the last song on that mixtape, because ‘Ain’t No Nigga’ was the last record I got, that’s the only reason it was at the end. I had a relationship with Dame and them, but that record was stolen, and it just happened to get into my hands. Listen, back then, it was a cruel game. But, a lot of niggas benefitted from my cruel game.”

Nas “Understanding” (off Niggas Don’t Give a Fuck)

Wu-Tang Clan Exclusives

“You know who gave those to me? Ol’ Dirty Bastard. I was walking on 134th Street and 8th Avenue at 7:00 at night. This nigga came running down, ‘Yo, you S&S right?’ I’m like, ‘Yo, who are you?!’ ‘I’m Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Yo, niggas fuck with you! Here’s this Wu-Tang shit.’ I’m like, ‘Wu-Tang?’ He’s like, ‘You don’t know about us. Trust me, son.’ He gave me ‘Tearz,’‘Protect Ya Neck,’ and ‘Method Man.’ And I played all three of them shits. Next thing you know, Wu was hot.”

Get Your Swerve On ‘95

“That mixtape shut the game down for like eight months. I had songs that niggas couldn’t even fuck around with. I had [Method Man and Redman’s] ‘How High.’ I had ‘Who Shot Ya’ with Keith Murray’s verse. To this day, no one still has that record*. [Laughs.] You only heard Keith Murray’s verse on the Mary [J. Blige My Life interlude]. But his whole verse wasn’t on there, [it was just a snippet that faded in and out]. I had the full version.

“It also had the total record, [‘No One Else.’] I was the first nigga to have that. Get Your Swerve On had it, [it was called ‘South Bronx’ on the list]. The song didn’t come out until ‘96. I played it in ‘95. But that wasn’t Total singing [on the version I played]. That was these girls Terri & Monica doing a reference for Puff. Somebody gave me the tape on 125th Street. The tape said Total ‘South Bronx.’ So I made my mixtape, and put that shit out.

“I was in the park playing ball, and I got a call from Diddy. He’s like, ‘Yo playboy, you hurtin’ me out here. Why’d you play that record?’ I said, ‘What record?’ ‘The Total record. Why would you play that? You gotta take that shit out the store, B.’ I said, ‘Where’d you hear it at?’ He said, ‘I’m in Atlanta. It’s playing all over here.’ I said, ‘Oh, it’s too late, my nigga.’

“If the Africans put my shit all over the streets [and made money off my tape], I didn’t care, because it got me all over the country. I’d give it to the Africans, and it was over. At that time, I had a relationship with the Africans, where they’d give me $2,500 to $3,000 for my master. They’d say, ‘Give it to us first, five days before everybody else gets it.’ Think I was gonna tell them niggas no?! [Laughs.] Everyone else is giving me $150, $200, they’re giving me $3,000. So I’d give them the mixtape, and them niggas would put that shit all over. Atlanta, Philly, Delaware, the whole Route 13. All those homecomings had my mixtapes. And it got me homecoming parties. I remember I did a party at the University of West Virginia for a half hour, and I got $5,000. Me and Busta Rhymes. And he got $15,000.”

“Clue was making 60 minute mixtapes. Some Queens niggas [were] fucking with him, but he wasn’t really on the radar, radar. Clue got big off all that Nas shit. His manager was Scarecrow, who was Steve Stoute’s brother. And Steve Stoute managed Nas at the time. So it was like Queens looks out for Queens. And he was getting B.I.G. joints illegally, and B.I.G. wanted to beat the shit out of him. That blew him up, too. You got Biggie shouting you out on the radio talking about, ‘I’m gonna kill you.’ So the streets are like, ‘Who is this Clue nigga?’ That’s all she wrote from there. Then Puff Daddy gave him ‘Hypnotize’ and all that [for Show Me the Money].

“I lost interest once the mixtapes switched over to CDs. I watched Clue, and I watched a couple other guys. But by then, I was doing parties. I had Skate Key in the Bronx, I was doing The Rink. So the mixtape shit was second to me because I had so much going on. I didn’t do mixtapes for the money. I know Clue was getting like $50,000 a tape. That was like, ‘Damn.’ But I ain’t have a team to go hard like that. I had a kid, so I was trying to support him. So I stayed with the parties. I remember sitting in a hotel out of town like, ‘I gotta do something so that when this mixtape shit die, I don’t die.” And that’s when I started going harder with the parties.”

Bad Boy Mixtape Vol. 4

“Puff had Clue, Doo Wop, Stretch Armstrong, and then me for Vol. 4. It was supposed be called And the Winner Is…. [because he thought 2Pac deserved an Oscar for acting so well during their beef]. He had a whole plan for what he wanted to do, with the Farrakhan intro [and him laughing during the 2Pac diss song]. Being around Puff, you get to see what type of talent he really is. When it’s time for him to execute, he executes.

“I didn’t care about [having my name on the tape during their beef with 2Pac and Death Row]. I remember me, B.I.G., and Biz Markie [were] in the studio together. And Biz asked him, ‘Yo, what’s up with the 2Pac thing?’ He was like, ‘Look, man. I know what he’s doing it for. That’s my guy. It’s nothin’.’

“Puff had that [Biggie freestyle], and he gave it to me for the mixtape. He had that to make it hot. Puff ain’t gonna put nothing out if it ain’t hot. That [tape] was a highlight. It definitely was. Another highlight was when Clark [Kent] called me in for the ‘Realms of Junior M.A.F.I.A. (Remix)’ with Lil’ Kim on it. That’s me on the intro, if you listen to it.”

“Intro” (off Bad Boy Mixtape Vol. 4)

The Notorious B.I.G. “Freestyle” (off Bad Boy Mixtape Vol. 4)

Beef with Ma$e

“Ma$e got tight because I played ‘24 Hrs. to Live’ early [on It’s Not a Game], and it almost got real dirty in the street. Ma$e wanted me to tell him who gave [the song] to me. And I’m a loyal guy. You fuck with me, I fuck with you. So I didn’t tell him, and he got upset. He had goons, and I had goons. When the OGs that I know heard that niggas [were] trying to move on me, they put the word out. But I was so mad, when niggas told me they [were] looking for me, I went looking for them. I went and got my gun, and I rode around Harlem looking for niggas. And they were shocked to see me out there in that type of mode. But street code is, ‘If someone’s looking for you, you go looking for them first.’ I think I was the first one to play ‘4,3,2,1’ [on that same tape]. Everybody else just had a snippet of it. I had the full version, with LL dissing Canibus.”

Production

“I did the ‘Impress the Kid’ record with Slick Rick. It was on the soundtrack for Rush Hour, and it was on his album too. I did the beat. My man Vinny was an A&R at Def Jam for Slick Rick and LL Cool J. He’s Waka Flocka’s uncle. I was playing beats for him, and he was like, ‘That beat right there go good with Slick.’ So we went [upstate] to Bearsville to record it. Slick Rick never knew who the fuck I was. But one of the engineers told him, ‘This guy can make your song hyper if you let him get on.’ So he said, ‘Do what you do.’ So I did my S&S shit, and he was like, ‘Keep that. You produced the record, leave your stamp on it.’

“The original was a Michael Jackson sample, ‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.’ I chopped that up and made the beat. But Lyor [Cohen] said, ‘I ain’t paying no fuckin’ Michael Jackson. I’m gonna get a bass player to come in and play it the exact same way.’ And the bass player came in, and that nigga played that shit to a T. But I own the publishing. Me and Slick Rick each got 50%. Remember the movie Boiler Room? They gave me $15,000 for that shit [to be in the movie]. So I was happy. I did a joint on Shyne’s album too, ‘Let Me See Your Hands.’ And I did a record on LL’s 10 album.

“I left the mixtape game alone, because me and Craig had gotten into a little beef over the mixtape shit. I was like, ‘You know what? If I got a beef with my friend, a nigga I grew up with, it ain’t fun no more.’”

Slick Rick “Impress the Kid” (off The Art of Storytelling)

Coming Back/Working with DJ Kay Slay

“That was a great tape. He was urging me to keep doing the mixtapes with him. But I was busy doing my parties. I wasn’t concerned about doing mixtapes anymore. He thought I was a younger DJ until we got together and talked, and he realized that [I was up on] most of the old school shit. I knew a little about the graffiti and all that. So for me to even know that world, the respect was there even more. Plus, I’m from Harlem—he’s from the East Side, I’m from the West Side. So we both grew up in the same culture.”

2014

“I’m down in North Carolina now. So I’m on my South shit. I like my New York niggas. I’m really proud of my son Lil SNS, he raps now. Me and my management partner Mr. Commercial, we’ve developed him from a great young man to a great young artist. Cipha Sounds actually was one of the first DJs to play him on the radio. And now he has two mixtapes out, one called Son of the Future, and the other’s called Harlem Horror. Check for him.

“I like Troy Ave, and Joey Bada$$. I like Vado. Fab made the best mixtape of the year. Down South, I like Young Thug, Que, PeeWee Longway. There’s Future, T.I., and all them, but I listen to a lot of young guys. I gotta keep up with the youngins. I’ll be DJing, and they’ll be like, ‘Yo, for a guy that’s an OG, you have every record. You got shit that I don’t have.’ I gotta keep up. I do it everyday. Going on websites, building with DJs, and searching. I still gotta have records. The hunger to get new records has never left.”